Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Who are you?” Silver Moon’s keen nerves tensed up once more. This Priest was already in such a terrible state, yet he still held the hope of having full control of the situation. Getting so stressed out every time something unexpected cropped up was truly taking an unnecessary toil on him.

“A kindred spirit…” Ye Xiaowu’s answer was in accordance with Silver Moon’s train of thought, yet the man merely ended up feeling confused by it.

“Let’s talk about the coordinates you wish to go first! I know you’ll probably have your doubts again if you let me pick the coordinates,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“But Linyin City’s coordinates…” Silver Moon had never been to Linyin City, so he had no idea what the coordinates there were like.

“Are you just gonna believe what I tell you at face value? If you don’t, just randomly find a friend over there and inquire about it,” Ye Xiaowu said.

Silver Moon was depressed once more. Why would he still have friends over there now? Even though his friends list had quite a few old comrades he had been acquainted with from previous games, he had never once gotten in contact with them in Parallel World. However, ever since the name Silver Moon propagated throughout the land, no matter who he attempted to contact, he would always receive the system prompt: [This player is not accepting messages from anyone not in his friends list.]

Ye Xiaowu could tell that Silver Moon was troubled by this, so he laughed and uttered a range of long coordinates.

“You’re not a newbie, right? I figure you know that these coordinates include the World Map’s coordinates that you’re familiar with. You’re not gonna suspect that I will be able to set up an ambush in such a large area now, will you?” Ye Xiaowu asked.

“Oh, no, no, no…” Silver Moon hurriedly said as he randomly picked a set of coordinates from within the range. Watching Ye Xiaowu write them down onto the Teleportation Scroll, Silver Moon’s suspicions reared its head once more. “Wait. What are those extra numbers for?”

“That’s Linyin City’s map code. Let me explain to you what that means! It’s only the players’ imagination that the World Map of Parallel World is a complete realm that seamlessly connects every map together. Given the limitations of the servers currently in use, coordinates are confined to those in each city and its surrounding region in Parallel World. Thus, even though the map coordinates go all the way up to tens of thousands, the coordinates which the system recognizes are limited. I can’t tell you specifically just how many they are; we’ll just use an example. Let’s say the coordinates limit is 2000, 2000, then coordinates 2001, 2001 will be a single position further than 2000, 2000, but the system will not recognize 2001, 2001 as a set of coordinates. At this time, the system will see the coordinates as 1,1 since the coordinates are recognized in cycles of 2000. Furthermore, this cycle won’t be repeated because each map out there has its own code. As long as I key in the right map code, the system won’t mistakenly transport us to the wrong map. This map code that you see now belongs to Linyin City. If I don’t key in these numbers, the system will automatically default to the current map’s map code. That means that, while what I’m filling in will be for Linyin City’s coordinates, the system will actually cycle the coordinates and will end up sending us to the corresponding coordinates here in Baishi City instead. Get it?”

Silver Moon’s mouth was wide open before he said after a beat, “I’ve never heard of such a rule before, nor did I hear anything about this map code. According to what you’ve just said, won’t not knowing this map code means that you can’t use Teleportation Scrolls to teleport across cities?”

Ye Xiaowu shook his head. “Looks like you’ve really never used a Teleportation Scroll before. When most players teleport across cities, the user will be first required to take the scroll to the position where they wish to teleport and record its coordinates there; this way, the system can store the hidden data of the map code into the scroll, so no matter where it will be activated later, the user can accurately reach the map coordinates they have written in.”

“And because you’re aware of the map code itself, you don’t need to use such a method to teleport?”

“That’s right.”

“Just who in the world are you?!” Silver Moon was astounded. He had never heard that bunch of information this man had just spouted about map coordinates, yet this Priest seemed to know it so well Silver Moon could already sense that he was far from ordinary.

“I’m just someone who has a greater understanding of how this game works; that’s all,” Ye Xiaowu answered.

“Are you… Are you an internal employee of the game?” Silver Moon was no fool, and the very technical understanding this man had displayed to him was something that went well beyond what the average player could discover through practical trial and error with the game.

Ye Xiaowu did not answer him, merely placing the scroll right before Silver Moon’s eyes once more. “Take a good look; the numbers in the front are the map code for Linyin City. The coordinates behind it are what you’ve chosen as our destination.”

Silver Moon knew that the Priest was trying to change the subject, so he did not attempt to inquire further. Taking a look at the coordinates once more, he asked, “Then, why isn’t the man we’re waiting for here yet?”

Silver Moon’s anxiety acted up again. It had been quite some time; what if people set up an ambush at the coordinates shown? Could this sort of person be lying in wait to take him down like a scorpion? Was he purposefully buying time? Was everything he had said before true or false? Silver Moon felt as if blood were leaking out from his orifices after thinking so much, yet he heard that man answer, “He’s here.”

Silver Moon turned to look in the direction Ye Xiaowu was gazing at and saw someone walk through the entrance of the Knights’ Barracks. The moment Silver Moon saw this man, he was surprised. “It’s you!”

That person also caught sight of Silver Moon, but his eyes quickly darted over to Ye Xiaowu who was standing right beside him.

“You guys…” Silver Moon took two steps backward, distancing himself from Ye Xiaowu. This was because he had seen this newcomer before, and he was someone with Dusky Cloud; he was one of those Thieves that had taken his equipment down and had dutifully spit on his face when everything was happening.

“Oh? Do you two know each other?” While Ye Xiaowu understood Silver Moon’s situation, he did not know just who Silver Moon’s enemies actually were.

“Are you two together?” Silver Moon spat.

The newcomer stared at Ye Xiaowu, as if he was waiting for the man to answer.

Ye Xiaowu looked at the two. “Do the two of you have past enmity?”

The Thief looked at Silver Moon. “I was merely executing my guild’s matters.”

Silver Moon wrinkled his brows and regarded the current situation. This person seemed to have been invited here by this Priest just like himself, but why must it coincidentally be this person? Just what was so special about this Thief? Silver Moon could more or less recognize those experts under Dusky Cloud, yet he had never once seen this man before. Silver Moon, who had always considered this man to be a shrimp, only remembered the latter’s face because he was always at the frontline in those times he got surrounded.

“I’ve invited the two of you here for the same reason,” Ye Xiaowu said.

Silver Moon quickly connected the dots. “You have a feud with Young Master’s Elite as well?” Someone under Dusky Cloud’s command should not have any sort of issues with that bunch, so Silver Moon found this to be very strange.

“My name’s No Smile,” the Thief said as a form of explanation.

Silver Moon had an immediate realization. This person is a scum, too! He was the first person whose name propagated across Parallel World after having been slain by Thousand Miles Drunk! Furthermore, Thousand Miles Drunk was known back then under the moniker Fugitive 27149. Speaking of which, had it not been for his relentless slaughtering of No Smile, that Mage would not have needed to run all the way to Yueye City to abscond from his pursuers. All in all, Silver Moon would not be in such a pitiful and sad situation now. Upon recalling this point, Silver Moon really wished he could just viciously throw a punch or two at the perpetrator.

“All right. I feel that we should leave this place first before we continue our discussion…” Ye Xiaowu realized that when No Smile came forward and interacted with the two of them, more and more players were eyeing them with great suspicion.

“How are we leaving?” No Smile asked. As someone who had participated in the targeted killing of Silver Moon, he was all the clearer as to just how fierce the ambush waiting outside for the man was.

“Teleportation. Stand over here, you two.” Ye Xiaowu unfurled the Teleportation Scroll.

No Smile was naturally not very concerned and just immediately stepped forward. Silver Moon acted all furtively and hesitantly before finally making his decision. He figured that he had already gambled his life so many times that another count would not hurt, so he gritted his teeth and stepped toward Ye Xiaowu as well.

The moment the scroll landed on the ground, the white light from the teleportation array instantly shone forth. Those players that had a slow reaction barely even realized what was happening as a pillar of white light shot upward, and the three men disappeared in that same instant.

Many players, concealed in the dark, up on the roof, or even those taking cover behind corners, had their eyes on Silver Moon this whole time. The moment he disappeared, all of them stepped out from their position and surrounded the wake of their disappearance, exchanging glances with one another.

“Was that… Was that a Teleportation Scroll?” At the current age, more and more players knew what was on the up and up.

“Who were those guys? Where were they from? To actually go to such expense…” someone asked, looking all around.

“Yeah. Is that b*s*rd even worth it?” another quipped. Teleportation Scrolls were a rare commodity and were worth a lot.

In the end, after the various group representatives from those that had set up their ambush outside the spawn point expressed their opinions, all of them made a discovery: None of those present had thought of using such an extravagant method like the activation of a Teleportation Scroll to deal with Silver Moon. After all, ganging up on the man was everyone’s favorite pastime, so no one would ever need to squirrel him away for their personal enjoyment. Most groups that had seized the opportunity would be celebrating their elation, so with no one stepping forth to claim this honor, this only meant that that occurrence was not any of their doing.

“Could it be that someone actually went and rescued that trash bag?” someone supposed.

“F*ck. No way. Someone would actually save that sort of scum? Who’s so shameless?!” another raged.

“Did anyone notice who were those people with him before?” another asked.

“There’s a Priest that I don’t recognize! I thought that he is one of your men.”

“And I thought he is yours!”

I thought they are yours…”

“That Thief that joined at a later time, isn’t that guy one of your men?” Someone pointed to the people from the Ten Guild Alliance. After spending so many days together here, everyone was more or less familiar with one another and had gotten to know where those people had come from. Everyone was very impressed at their dedication for having made the trip all the way to Baishi City just to hunt down Silver Moon.

The men from the Ten Guild Alliance exchanged glances. After all, there were still many battles back in Yueye City for them to handle. Dusky Cloud himself, as the chief boss of the Ten Guild Alliance, could not play along with camping Silver Moon out like this. Fortunately, there were plenty of players in their organization that had expressed their enthusiasm to kill Silver Moon. The leader of their delegation for the last two days here was his comrade Celestial Pig. Having suffered the bullying of Silver Moon and his men in the past, now that their fates had been reversed, the former was of course more than happy to kick Silver Moon while he was down, yet who would have thought that something like this would happen within these two days upon him coming over here?

“Old Cloud, Silver Moon got rescued.” Celestial Pig quickly sent this message to Dusky Cloud.

“F*ck! M*th*rf*ck*r! You g*dd*mn coward, how did you let that man escape when it’s your turn to man the post? Can’t you show a bit of promise at least?” Dusky Cloud cursed.

“It’s not my fault! Someone procured a Teleportation Scroll and whisked him away,” Celestial Pig protested.

“F*ck! Who’s the a*sh*le that would go so far just to save a scum?” Dusky Cloud was in shock.

“Not just that… One of our men teleported along with them. It was No Smile.”

“…”